THE LADY WITH ALL THE ANSWERS @ CAPITAL REPERTORY THEATRE, 4/22/10

by Michael Eck
Special to The Times Union
ALBANY – In the days before the internet, people actually wrote letters. On typewriters. Thousands of them. And they mailed them. Mostly to Ann Landers.
Well, that last part isn’t absolutely true, but Landers did keep the post office pretty busy during her 47 years of offering advice in the pages of America’s newspapers.
“The Lady With All The Answers” is David Rambo’s play about Landers’ reign as the nation’s leading advice columnist, and it’s currently onstage at Capital Repertory Theatre in a production that was first staged at Hartford TheaterWorks.
Landers was actually the pen name of Eppie Lederer, and her main competition was Dear Abby, a column written by her twin sister, Pauline Phillips.
These are just two of the facts you’ll learn from “Lady.” Two of many. Too many.
Rambo mires the play in an endless parade of tidbits about this or that aspect of Lederer’s life. All are interesting in their own way, but the net result is a head full of stuff with little heart.
Charlotte Booker is magnificent in the role.
From the first beat it is evident that she has the right voice and the right attitude for the character, and she really defines a sort of midwestern mix of chipper and frank.
If anyone can really bring this piece alive it is Booker.
And she truly does make “Lady” entertaining. But, as noted, Rambo’s script is didactic.
Much of the show is offered as direct address and Booker is great at establishing a rapport with the crowd. But in between her interactions with patrons it’s as though Lederer is on some kind of then-I-did-this, then-I-did-that kind of autopilot. To co-opt a term of the age, she’s a Stepford columnist.
Lederer undoubtedly led an interesting life, but her story could be told in more intimate ways than as multiple layers of exposition.
Director Steve Campo works hand in hand with Booker, and achieves every director’s true goal, to become invisible. Booker’s blocking, pacing and and delivery all seem natural, in a 70s, I-wear-my-furs-in-the-house way.
And occasionally she even bursts through the stodginess of the script to capture a real moment, as when describing the film “Deep Throat” to viewers of a TV show.
Even at the close of the piece, Rambo misses a chance at art. The thrust of the play is that Lederer is writing her column on the night of her 1975 divorce, and struggling with what words to use. When she finally finds her hook, she sits down to the typewriter with an excited determination familiar to any writer.
It’s a fine way to end a show, except that Rambo then has her get up from the desk and speechify more. It’s too cute and not very real, and it robs any emotional payoff that might have been (too long in the) coming.
Fans of Landers will certainly find much to enjoy here, as will students of pop culture.
But the reason to see this piece is Booker’s talent rather than Rambo’s text.